Lois Lane flying to Perth

June 25, 2013 — 6.41am

Throughout her 75-year history, Lois Lane has always been a no-nonsense, tough-talking woman and an intrepid reporter determined to tell a great story.

Just minutes into a conversation with Margot Kidder you can see why, without any prior research into the role, she became the definitive incarnation of the Daily Planet's star reporter and love interest for Christopher Reeve's Superman for a generation.

Margot Kidder with Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie (1978). She later forgot to warn her young daughter of the scene where she dies.

It's been 35 years since movie audiences first watched her fall from a crashed helicopter on the roof of a Metropolis skyscraper into the arms of the ultimate superhero.

And, on the phone at least, it seems the actress has not lost any of the brutally honest, direct attitude that made her the bold adventurer Lois Lane to Reeve's timid, worrisome Clark Kent.

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"They won't recognise me, I'm a 64-year-old grandmother!" she blurts out when asked how she thinks fans will greet her at Perth's annual star-studded pop culture gathering Supanova, this weekend.

"Often people my age or younger bring these poor crying children behind them and say 'look, look, it's Lois Lane!' and they [their children] go 'no it isn't'... because obviously I don't look remotely like I did in those movies, and so their hearts are broken," she says, laughing.

Not shying away from the reality that several actresses have since wore the shoes she last stepped into 23 years ago for the somewhat painful Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Kidder says she still feels great about meeting fans of her Lois Lane.

Especially when it involves flying around the world to attend fan meets and answer their questions in person.

"It's great fun, the fans are really sweet," she said.

"People ask what it was like to work with Christopher Reeve and I say 'gosh, I don't know'.

"The first movie took a year and a half so these people become your family and you can't really in a nutshell sum up a family member.

"Chris and I use to play chess like mad and he would get very annoyed when I'd beat him and he'd think that someone of my station in life shouldn't be beating him in chess."

There was a period where I couldn't walk down the street without people going 'Pink!' ... but I think they would feel a little awkward doing that now.

Kidder says the bond her and the late actor had helped both on and off-screen as they spent years together working on the movies.

"We were very close, in a brother-sister way," she said.

"But what that translates as is simply intimacy. The camera picks up the intimacy so it looks romantic - but there was no romance between us, trust me, at all.

"It made it easier because we could be really quite close and we could say anything – and did – to each other the way you can with a brother or sister, and so in a weird way I think it was actually much easier than if there had been any romance."

When asked about the quality of the sequels that followed the December 1978 smash-hit, Kidder explains how the series were a victim of the first movie's success.

"We had great fun and we had a wonderful director with the first two, Dick [Richard] Donner who was so devoted to the movie and to us that he made everything work," she said.

Originally the first two movies were to be shot back-to-back by Richard Donner, whose film credits include The Omen, The Goonies and the Lethal Weapon series, but Kidder says that Warner Bros. realised they were making a hit movie and wanted to cash in quickly.

"It was very hard watching him [Donner] go. Some of us made more of a fuss than others – me in particular – so you could tell the joy [of working together] in all our faces, in the first one in particular and half of the second one.

"It's really sad because he was a great director. He was terrific, and they broke his heart.

"He put so much of himself into that and so at a certain point I guess they realised they had a hit and could make money, so [they thought] how can they make money cheap and fast? 'Get rid of this director who is getting us over budget and we'll get someone who will knock it off for us'."

When asked if that was the case for the next two sequels, she didn't pull any punches.

"Well yeah they were crooks these producers," she said.

"Richard Lester was a wonderful guy but not right for the material, but they already owed him money so they said 'all right we'll pay you if you come direct the rest of Superman II'."

Kidder's passion for the work the original team did on the first sequel is enough to rival the movie's legion of fans – who she credits with bringing a semi-restored, and re-edited version of Superman II to audiences years later.

"They threw out all these scenes that Chris and I had done, which is tragic, then finally the fans' noise was loud enough so that Warner Bros. had to let Donner go back and recut his version.

"So if you really want to see a good version of the second movie go out and buy the Richard Donner-cut DVD. That's the one to see. It's so much better than the one that came out as well.

Her open criticism of the Superman sequels come as little surprise when considering Kidder reportedly hated her other smash-hit movie The Amityville Horror that came out a year after the first Man of Steel blockbuster.

"It was amazing, that year those were the two highest-grossing movies for them [studios Warner Bros. for Superman, and American International Pictures for Amityville] and I was in them both.

"So that's why I really became a movie star for sure – because I made people money.

"Then they realised it wasn't me -and if the movie wasn't good I wasn't going to make them any money. so I got dropped like a hot rock".

Despite her distaste for the three sequels Kidder, whose one memento from the series is a framed copy for the Daily Planet featuring Lois Lane's 'I spent the night with Superman' front page article - stolen from the set by a friend and given to her years later as a Christmas gift - doesn't dismiss the impact Superman: The Movie and its follow-ups had on her life.

Now a proud grandmother, she says her 11-year-old grandson in particular is amazed she got to fly with Superman, though she says she was careful not to make the mistake of letting her grandchildren see the movie the way her daughter did when she was four-years-old.

"When my grandson first saw it we were a bit worried because there is that scene where I die," she said.

"When my daughter went to see it I forgot - and she went with a friend and their dad and of course suddenly there's mommy dying on screen.

"Well she didn't really know the difference between a movie and reality and she started screaming and wailing, it was awful.

"They had to stop the movie, doctors had to come, she turned up at the door with these police and this fellow in the white cab... and the father said 'why didn't you tell me you died?'

"And I said: 'I didn't even think of it', so she was traumatised for life!"

Preparing to meet fans in Sydney, before coming to Perth this weekend, Kidder adds that the response to her portrayal has changed over the years.

"There was a period where I couldn't walk down the street without people going 'Pink!'," – in reference to a scene where she tests Superman's claim of X-ray vision by asking him what colour underwear she had on.

"But I think they would feel a little awkward doing that now," she said.

Making her first trip to Perth, Kidder said she plans to explore as much of the area as she can while looking for a box made from Aboriginal art to add to her collection at home.

"I get a box from every country I've been to in the world so I'll be looking for the perfect Aboriginal box to take home with me."

Meanwhile as Superman fans await the Australian release of the character's new lease of life in Zach Snyder's Man of Steel, the former Lois Lane says she has seen the new movie, and is a big fan.

Perhaps with only one minor complaint: it needed more Lois.

"I thought it was wonderful and I thought that young Amy Adams was just terrific," she said.

"I wanted a lot more of her, I wish they had more scenes for her," she added.

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Margot Kidder joins stars including Carrie Fisher, David Hasselhoff and Karl Urban for Supanova at Claremont Showgrounds, June 29 -30.